Book! Training! Snow....

First things first -- Look what came already! Holy buckets, that seems really fast. I wonder how fast it would arrive if I didn't choose the cheapest shipping/production price? That's why I don't bother. I'm in no hurry to receive it, really, so I'm fine with the one that projects a delivery date almost a month out from purchase. Besides, I ordered this on the 6th and it's already here!

It is very, very pink! lol I know that's what I wanted, but it's an eye-catcher. Perhaps the only thing I would have changed is to go with a more muted shade of pink on the inner pages (don't worry, it's not the same bright pink as the cover -- that would give you a headache!). I did the same thing with the last book, which had a darker purple cover and lighter purple pages, but that turned out a bit lighter. Oh well, it's still plenty readable.

I'm currently reading a Patricia McConnell book, "Love Has No Age Limit" as a bit of homework for the shelter, but once I'm done with that I'll be cracking into Volume 2!



For a few days now they've been blabbering on about a snow storm we were supposed to get, starting last night. I was home for the evening, so I figured I'd better take advantage of it and be sure to get it what is sure to be the last outdoor training session until spring. How often do you get to say that on January 11?

I have seen this front cross drill posted numerous times in numerous places, but I don't believe I've ever actually set it for myself. Rose over at the "Going the Distance" blog posted a video on YouTube the other day of this drill so it was fresh in my mind. I thought it would give us lots of fun stuff to work on with a minimum of set-up time, so I went with that.

Because I am driven by my desire to play with Secret in organizations other than NADAC, I decided to bump her back up to 20" for these exercises to see how she does. I have kept her at 16" for some time, more or less because I felt she was not enjoying herself at the higher heights anymore. Perhaps it was due to her back issues, so I felt it would be good to see where she's at after using her Back on Track coat the last couple of weeks. Whatever the reason, I felt she did very well back at 20"! If we had more time outside I'd actually start to experiment with going a bit higher, but that will just have to wait until spring. I think she could likely handle the 22" Performance class in USDAA, though. We'll see.

Secret wasn't blazing fast through these exercises as she tried to figure out what I was asking -- and since I more or less went into this without a plan, I don't blame her because I, myself, was hesitant! Considering that, I think she did exceptionally well. She stayed happy & playful throughout everything, even when we had to restart exercises because of my mistakes. I rewarded her for EVERYTHING because I figured all errors were my fault. I kept all of our play time (in fast forward!) in the video to show our entire session from start to finish. There is a bit of a blip around the 2:50 mark, you may notice if you watch the video -- There was a five second clip that was corrupting my entire video, so I just pitched it. Don't worry, it wasn't much. :o)



Kaiser did surprisingly well with these exercises! As I've mentioned several times in the past, I managed to install a giant space bubble into Kaiser during his early agility training. Great for distance work, not so great for anything technical. I also rely far too much on vocal cues with him in particular, so after listing to a podcast by Daisy Peel yesterday, I made it my goal for all three dogs to keep my darn mouth shut. Kaiser started out by doing what he always does and totally ignored my body cues, but once he figured out I wasn't saying anything he started to really pay attention! By the end of his session he was doing multiple threadles in a row without popping a vein in his brain! I'm terribly pleased with him.



Poor Luke. This is not his cup of tea, but he still tries hard! It helps that I keep the jumps at 8" for him so that he at least doesn't hurt himself, but he still barges ahead like a freight train and turns like a yacht. :o) Actually, his wraps are really coming along better than I figured they would at this stage in his training (or lack thereof). I tried for a threadle at the end and just laughed at the result and gave up. There is no point in pushing the old man so far out of his comfort zone, so I let him end with a bit of distance play.

I'm very glad we got this training in last night. We have something like 3"-4" of snow out there now, I believe. It's hard to tell because it's blowing around and still coming down lightly. Blah. I figured we probably wouldn't get through winter without any snow, but a girl can always dream, right?

So.... I suppose now it's time to start playing in the basement!